How sweet was it watching Melky Cabrera and Ramiro Pena get those hits in the 8th inning? Pretty darn sweet…for me. Now, that’s fun to root for…

Cool conga night for the line-up. The Yankees 7-8-9-1 hitters, Swisher/Cabrera/Pena/Jeter, were on base 10 times, combined, via a hit or walk in this one. That, plus a gutty hang-in there job by A.J. Burnett for seven innings, gives New York a win in this one. Always nice to beat those Angels…

So, the Yankees end up going 12-10 in the month of April. And, they close the month sitting just two games back of the Blue Jays and Red Sox who are tied for first in the A.L. East. Not too shabby. Just imagine how much nicer this would be if not for that three game set last weekend up in Fenway…

Burnit was better than OK actually BUT that was enough to give them the win. Anyone expecting a 1a performance from him every time ,start looking at his last 3 performances and his time with the Jays. The scary thing is that when he was with Toronto , he was great against Boston , the Yankees and mediocre against everyone else.We also got to see what happened last weekend at Fenway, where he had a 6 run lead and got smacked around. As long as he keeps the Yanks in the game, he’ll be fine but otherwise……

I wonder is this new stadium the house that Melky built? Is Melkman coming out of the shadows of 4th outfielderdom? I don’t know what is happening but it is a nice surprise.

Also, Jeter is something like 6 for 9 with RISP with 2 outs this year. Maybe the Yankees should get rid of this model player and trade him while he’s hot…..NOT! The anti-Jeter contingent is even more insane than the Arod one.St Derek might be a phony (he’s certainly a much better one than that fool, Arod), BUT he can still play. Anyone that sees someone who has such a consistent record for the last 12 plus years can’t write this guy off……yet, at the very least.

Actually, if Mariano just gets Bay out
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Speaking of Mariano, what the hell is up with him? He looked bad in Boston on Friday night, bad vs. the Tigers on Wednesday night and his velocity was non-existent last night. 86 mph on his fastball for all 4 batters he faced? Alarming.

MJ, you obviously were watching on YES, whose gun is notoriously slow. MLB Gameday had him at 90-91. Still a tick down, but fine.
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Yes, I was watching YES. I know the YES gun is slow because Flaherty said he hit 90 on the stadium gun. Nevertheless, that’s still down for Mariano. Fine or not, he was over 90 on the YES gun to start the year so there is definitely something affecting his velocity.

Factor in his past 2-3 appearances and I am bringing up the subject. I’m not alarmed but I am noticing something that I’d never seen before.

Anyone that sees someone who has such a consistent record for the last 12 plus years can’t write this guy off……yet, at the very least.
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Hey butch, nobody is “writing off” Derek at this point in his career. He’s not done, through or over the hill yet…he’s just in a steady decline. It happens to shortstops when they hit their mid-to-late thirties and we’re seeing it with Derek. I love Derek, as do 99.9% of Yankee fans, but his decline can’t be ignored. That’s all.

YankCrank, there is no steady decline, it is one season. It looks like a trend because of his awesome 2006, but his 2007 numbers were right in line with his 2002-2005 stats. One bad season is not a trend, and I’m pretty encouraged about his performance thus far- he is really driving the ball the other way.

I’m not alarmed but I am noticing something that I’d never seen before.
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the guy did just have shoulder surgery, maybe 10 innings at 5 pitches per in ST was not enough to build his arm strength after that?

Factor in his past 2-3 appearances and I am bringing up the subject. I’m not alarmed but I am noticing something that I’d never seen before.
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I hold my breath every year with Mariano, just hoping and praying that he could be typical Mariano for at least one more year. His velocity has also worried me but i’m hoping for a quick rebound.

I think we all can agree that despite the great pitching in the 90s, the presence of Derek Jeter and all that went well for the yanks since 96, the one piece that was irreplaceable was Mariano. We’ll sorely miss him when he’s gone, that’s for sure.

yagottagotomo, I think you make a good point and steady was probably the wrong word for me to use. I think where I was wrong was where I was trying to make a generalization that most shortstops start to fall off at Derek’s age amd I did that without checking the #s

YankCrank, I think that the general perception is of a general decline because people just look at 2006-2008, without looking at the context for 2006 and 2007. He’s had one bad year, and if you take out that month after getting hit on the hand, it wasn’t actually that bad.